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Babble telephony - Early xmas present from jonnymac

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:28 pm
by jonnymac1979
Hello guys.  Nothing to do with football this one.  It’s my early Christmas present to you all though.

A few months back, I discovered Voice Over IP phones.  I have one of these devices in my flat at home and on my desk at work.

For those of you on Broadband who want free telephone calls to anywhere in the Zone 1 region (UK, USA, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) go to Babble.net.  Register first, then download the software.

People, I sh!t you not when I say that this thing works.  This works if you have a microphone and speakers.  I blagged myself a free VoIP USB handset though, gives you that more authentic and traditional ‘using the phone’ feel to it. 

I don’t really understand how it’s free, it’s the way the voice is routed through the internet as data, but don’t let any jargon fool you, I’ll say it again. 

YOU CAN CALL FIXED LAND LINES IN THE ABOVE COUNTRIES FOR FREE, FREE I TELLS YA!!!!!

Check this Babble forum discussion out if you want to know how it’s free.

I thought I would share this with you all.  This technology is fairly new, but it is about 18 months ahead of the game where home and business users are concerned.  Not many people are using this and there is no reason why not to.  All the major telecommunications firms are offering similar services, but none are free.  This is something they are having to take seriously.  I don’t know how free it’s going to stay in the future, but for most of 2005, it should be completely free.

I’ve already sorted my mate out and my brother with this.  No complaints.

Is anyone already using it?  Let me know what you think about it. 

If you don’t want to try it, fair enough, but I can completely vouch for this.

Hope it saves you all a lot of money.

Yours Faithfully

Father “JonnyMac” Christmas

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:37 pm
by woof woof !
Cheers JM, I'll sort myself out with a mike amnd try it out.
Mate of mine in SE Asia calls me on a similar system , the quality is not always of the highest order (maybe thats down to his location way off the beaten track) but for free who's gonna complain  ? . 
:D  :D  :D

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 7:44 pm
by jonnymac1979
I've heard no complaints.  Combine it with your webcam and you've got free video conferencing as well!! 

I can't praise this product enough. :;): :)

PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:43 pm
by jonnymac1979
woof woof ! wrote:Cheers JM, I'll sort myself out with a mike amnd try it out.
Mate of mine in SE Asia calls me on a similar system , the quality is not always of the highest order (maybe thats down to his location way off the beaten track) but for free who's gonna complain  ? . 
:D  :D  :D

Have you tried it yet Woof?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:16 am
by LFC #1
I see you have updated your sig jonny. :)

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:25 am
by jonnymac1979
LFC #1 wrote:I see you have updated your sig jonny. :)

Yeah, the pi$$ing man is gone but not forgotten!!!

I think my new signature is the dog's bollox.  Not good for those on dial up, but it's here to stay for the time being.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:29 am
by greenred
Fair play to ya jonny.Ive heard of it all right,i didnt realise it was free though.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:26 pm
by Woollyback
BT are offering something along this line for broadband customers - free download of the software and they'll give you free calls via your PC, but only until Jan 2006

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:33 pm
by jonnymac1979
Woollyback wrote:BT are offering something along this line for broadband customers - free download of the software and they'll give you free calls via your PC, but only until Jan 2006

Yeah, you're right, all the big firms are moving with this. 

In simple terms, it's just data over an Internet connection, except it's tangible speech, hence Voice over Internet Protocol.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:44 pm
by Woollyback
Silly question here, you'll have to excuse my IT-illiteracy but I assume you can call landline telephones via your PC, not just other people who've got their PC set up?

What other kit do you need, just some kind of microphone? ???

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:51 pm
by woof woof !
jonnymac1979 wrote:
woof woof ! wrote:Cheers JM, I'll sort myself out with a mike amnd try it out.
Mate of mine in SE Asia calls me on a similar system , the quality is not always of the highest order (maybe thats down to his location way off the beaten track) but for free who's gonna complain  ? . 
:D  :D  :D

Have you tried it yet Woof?

Not yet JMac, but haven't forgotten , just haven't dragged myself down the shops to sort out a mike yet.

:(

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:02 pm
by jonnymac1979
Woollyback wrote:Silly question here, you'll have to excuse my IT-illiteracy but I assume you can call landline telephones via your PC, not just other people who've got their PC set up?

What other kit do you need, just some kind of microphone? ???

Yes

You can call land lines from your PC for FREE to all of the countries mentioned in my first post.

A mate of mine is moving to Nagoya, Japan in January where I wont be able to call him, obviously.  I sorted him out with a VoIP phone and gave him the Babble software on CD to install on his computer when he gets out there. 

Stay with me......

Now, Japan isn't in the Zone 1 list of countries, so even on Babble, ringing a land line would cost you.  Don't worry, you wont be invoiced by your ISP or anything like that, you need to top up your Babble account (a bit like PAYG).  You should never need to do this even though the facility is there should you want to e.g. if you wanted to call mobiles (which incidentally was also free until Dec 01st 2004)

But, if myself and my mate are both logged into Babble at the same time, we THEN could call each other for free, because BABBLE USER to BABBLE USER is free.

All done through either a simple 'microphone and speakers' setup, or a proper soft phone / VoIP handset via USB.

Take into account variables like internet traffic, connection speeds, contention ratios etc... and the fact that the Babble software is only in a beta stage, it is still a high quality phone call.  I use it both in work (occasionally) and at home.

Of course it is dependant on you having your PC on to make the call, but like I say, there is a link to a discussion forum in my original post on this thread you can click on to read more about it.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:30 pm
by Woollyback
Sounds like a winner, gonna give it a go I think  :)